


A Father's Love

by advanced_fanatic



Series: Bungou Stray Archives [3]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs
Genre: (basically the orphans), But not really though, Episode: e009 A Father's Love (The Magnus Archives), Gen, Implied Oda Sakunosuke/Sakaguchi Ango, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Oda Sakunosuke Lives (Bungou Stray Dogs), POV First Person, bet he wishes he hadn't though, but like, i never thought i would use this tag but, it's a statement, two statements actually, with bsd characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:07:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24951295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/advanced_fanatic/pseuds/advanced_fanatic
Summary: Statements of Nakajima Atsushi and Dazai Osamu on the criminal activities of their guardian, renowned serial killer Oda Sakunosuke.
Relationships: Dazai Osamu & Fukuzawa Yukichi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu & Oda Sakunosuke (Bungou Stray Dogs)
Series: Bungou Stray Archives [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1740364
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	1. Statement of Nakajima Atsushi

Three years apart, two boys walked into the Magnus Institute. The first boy was around 10, with shaggy white hair and one of the stranger cases of heterochromia. He walked to the girl at the front desk, who flipped her long black hair over her shoulder and waved him through. 

“Um...I didn’t even say where I was going,” he said. 

The girl shrugged. “I don’t know where anything is here, I’m just covering for the regular girl. She’s taking a flight right now.”

“Where’s she going?” the boy asked. 

“She’s just flying.” The girl shot him a mischievous grin. “I’m Tanizaki Naomi, by the way. You’re a Hunter, aren’t you?”

He frowned. “Um, that’s what my brother Dazai says...how could you tell?”

She winked at him. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually. You’re here for the Archives, right? A statement.”

“Um. Yeah. Something...something happened. Dazai said we should keep it a secret, but the police are involved, and I think I should tell  _ someone _ , and—”

“Kid. Save it for the Archivist. And, uh, down those stairs...to the left?”

“You don’t sound very sure,” he said. 

Naomi shrugged. “I haven’t really spent that much time here. Too many  _ eyes _ , y’know? And the hallways...much too close for me.”

“You’re one of the sky people,” the boy said. 

“Avatar of the Vast, yeah. But you should find your way. You’re a Hunter. And I know the Archives are  _ definitely  _ in the basement.”

“Thanks,” the boy told her. He smiled at her, teeth slightly sharp-looking, and dashed down the stairs. Naomi put her feet up on the reception desk and watched the doors. 

The boy wandered down the stairs. A teenage girl with a black bob and a gold butterfly pin looked up. 

“Are you here to give a statement?” she asked. 

The boy nodded. 

“Alright. Shachou’s this way—the Archivist. Fukuzawa Yukichi. I’m one of his Assistants, Yosano Akiko. What’s your name?”

“Nakajima. Nakajima Atsushi. Um, so should I be here? It’s weird, I don’t know if I should tell it…”

“If it’s weird, that’s what we’re here for,” Yosano told him. 

He nodded, but didn’t look reassured. Yosano opened the door to the Archivist’s office. The man inside had grey hair around his shoulders and a steaming mug of tea on his desk. 

“Hello. You’re here to give a statement, right?”

Atsushi nodded. Yosano pushed him forward and into the office and closed the door. Atsushi hovered awkwardly there until the Archivist gestured for him to sit down. 

“What’s your name?” he asked. 

“Nakajima Atsushi. I’m here because, um, I think my brother’s guardian is a serial killer? Um. I guess legally he’s my guardian too, but…well, Dazai’s really the one who raised me. And I like him  _ much _ better anyway. So.”

“Alright,” said the Archivist. He reached forward and clicked on a tape recorder. “Statement of Nakajima Atsushi, regarding the criminal activities of his guardian. Statement begins.”

Atsushi felt the words bubble up from his tongue. “It started around four years ago. I had been living on the streets for about a month after getting kicked out of my orphanage when I was approached by a boy. He was around nine, and wrapped in bandages, and told me that he could get me a nice safe place to stay. I hadn’t eaten anything other than what small animals I could catch in ages, and I was wet and cold and he seemed nice, so he brought me to a house in the suburbs of the city. The door was hanging open, which it never was in the four years I stayed there. I didn’t think it was all that weird at the time, though, because it was almost midnight at that point and he had said he was going for a walk when he saw me. This wasn’t the first time I’d met this boy—he would sometimes say hi to me, and give me money or food, and he had told me he would make sure that I got off of the streets. So I trusted him and didn’t question that the door was open. He brought me inside and introduced himself as Dazai Osamu. He said he was a suicide enthusiast and part-time worker at the Buraiha Library, and that we were going to be staying with his guardian, Oda Sakunosuke. He asked if I was thirsty and I said yes, so he had me sit down at the table and he went to get a glass of water for me. Sitting on the table was a silver pendant, a hand with the symbol of what looked like a closed eye on it. There was a Post It note next to it that read  _ With Love From Gide.  _ I figured that Gide was maybe another worker at the library or something and didn’t mention it. Then I smelled something disgusting—later I would learn it was brackish water, but I didn’t know then—and I heard Dazai curse. 

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked. 

‘I don’t know yet,’ he told me. ‘But I’m going to ask Odasaku about it. You don’t need to worry.’

‘Gide, too?’ I asked. 

Dazai never really fully let his guard down, ever. He’s always been in control of his expressions, his actions, his  _ everything.  _ Usually I have to rely on scent to figure out what he’s feeling. But this time, I could see his expression slip, and something that looked like fear enter his face. He grabbed the pendant and the note off the table and dashed up the stairs, shouting, ‘Odasaku!’ I didn’t know if I was allowed to, so I didn’t move, and when they came downstairs Oda—Odasaku, as Dazai always calls him, but I don’t, he’s, he's a murderer, he’s a serial killer, and it was really Dazai who raised me, not him—was on the phone with someone, and they were talking about a fire, an attack of some sort. At the library they worked at, I think. I know neither of them brought it up again after that night. Oda saw me at the table and told Dazai to take me upstairs, to his bedroom, and that we had to stay there until he got back. And Dazai argued and said that it was his library too, and he wanted to help, but Oda said that I was the priority, that he ‘couldn’t let another child die’. So Dazai grabbed some snacks and a couple juice boxes and brought me upstairs. He led me into his bedroom—our bedroom, because I insisted on staying with him after, even though there were other rooms I could use. We stayed up there for hours. Dazai...he’s a good brother. He tried his best, even if his best is sometimes not all that great. That night...it definitely wasn’t all that great. I think...I don’t know, but I think there used to be more kids there, more than just me and Dazai. I could smell them. Still can, only, you know...faded. 

The years that followed were really nice. Oda tried to take good care of me, but something always seemed off about him. He stank of blood and guilt. I always thought that was because of whatever happened to the other kids, but…

Anyway. Dazai practically raised me. Oda doted on us both, and we went to school and had friends—kind of. I got into a bunch of fights with Akutagawa Ryuunosuke and Lucy Montgomery, but honestly they’re my best friends now. Even if Akutagawa and I try to kill each other whenever we see each other, there’s no one I trust more. Everything was good, but...that scent never went away. Blood and guilt. The other kids, their scent faded, but the house stank of blood and guilt, all four years I was there. 

Nothing really interesting ever happened. I mean, Dazai and Oda got into photography at one point, but I stayed out of it. And he never let us go in the shed, but I didn’t want to go there anyway, because that smell was strongest there. Blood and guilt and brackish water. And I only heard the name Gide once after that, yesterday afternoon. 

I was alone with Oda, because Dazai was spending the day with Oda’s estranged husband, Ango—I think it had something to do with the library, I’m not sure. The phone rang, and so I picked it up and said hello. The man on the other end said he worked with Oda. I asked his name and he told me ‘Gide’. He said he had a job for Oda. 

At that point, Oda had come down into the kitchen and he asked who was on the phone. I told him that it was Gide with a job for him. His face went so pale. I could smell the terror coming off of him. He asked for the phone, and told me to go upstairs and wait for Dazai. I didn’t really trust him, but it’s not like I had a reason to stay back and spy on him, and Dazai didn’t like it when I just did it. 

And then the light bulb in the landing blew out. 

This happened a lot there, Oda said we had faulty wiring. But it gave me an excuse to go back downstairs and listen to their conversation. I could only hear Oda’s half of the conversation, but that was ok with me. It would be dumb to try to listen in on the phone, anyway. It was easier to get caught, and even though Oda and Dazai have never hurt me, I just...I can’t help but remember the orphanage. And so I try not to get in trouble. But I could hear what Oda said. He was angry. He said ‘No,’ and ‘Not now,’ and ‘Don’t hurt them!’ He said, ‘I can’t lost them too,’ and then he sighed and said, ‘Fine.’ I ran upstairs, quietly, because I’m good at that. I changed the lightbulb and went into Dazai’s and my bedroom. I watched Oda drive off, in his dark green SUV, and waited. Dazai didn’t come back before I fell asleep, which was weird until I realized he smelled like smoke, which wasn’t that unusual. Whenever he was late he smelled like smoke. This never worried me. If he didn’t smell like smoke, that was when there was trouble. 

I woke up when he came in, though. He tried to be quiet, but when he saw I was awake he turned on the lights. 

That’s when we noticed that the streetlamps were going out. It was one after the other, slowly picking up speed. And I could smell something coming, too, that smelled like the brackish water that had come my first night in their house. Dazai cursed. I’m not going to repeat what he said, it was a very bad word. But he cursed, and started to head out of the bedroom, and I followed him. Of course I did. I always follow Dazai. We went downstairs and he flicked on all the lights in the house and called the police as the darkness and whatever was causing the darkness came nearer. I could smell it, and I knew that I would fight it. Dazai’s a good brother, he really is, but he can’t fight to save his life, not like I can. So I was getting ready to fight it. But when we heard it scratching at the door Dazai grabbed my arm and we ran for the shed. 

It was glowing, pale blue, and the padlock was open, and somehow I knew that this light would keep the thing away. Dazai was pulling me, and I let him stay in front so that he was closer to the light and I was between him and the monster. Dazai’s a good brother. I didn’t want to lose him—I  _ don’t  _ want to lose him. But I have to say something, to somebody, and you won’t go to the police. 

We got to the shed and Dazai wrenched the door open. In the middle there were two people...or, I guess, one person and one corpse. Because that man there was dead. His chest was sliced open and Oda was holding his heart in the air and chanting. And even though the man was dead his heart was beating, in time with the other hearts in jars on all of the walls. And they were glowing, and I heard the thing get closer, and growl louder, and then suddenly the light faded from the shed and the monster, it just...vanished. Oda looked up at us, and he looked really sad. 

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I did it for you.’

Dazai asked why. I didn’t see his face, because he was still in front of me, but he sounded utterly wrecked. Oda just shook his head and stood and wiped his still-bloody hands on his pants as the sirens from the police came closer, and then he ran. I went to chase after him but Dazai grabbed my arm and stopped me. He said it wasn’t my job, that the police were going to go after him and that he had been protecting us anyway. He told me that they might suspect us, and that I should probably be crying, since I’m ten. We were still staring at the shed when the police found us. I was crying, and I was hardly even faking it. That night was  _ awful _ . Dazai did most of the talking, and they dropped me off at Lucy’s house while he went to the station. I guess they figured since I’m ten I couldn’t say anything useful. So Lucy helped me get over here, and...yeah. That’s it.”

“Statement ends,” said the Archivist. “I’m sorry to hear about your guardian.”

Atsushi nodded. “I just wish I knew why he did it. And...and the kids, the other kids, if he killed them too. I mean, I don’t think so, because he never hurt Dazai and me, but how do I know for sure?”

“The police will probably find out,” Fukuzawa told him. “And you don’t have to worry about Gide coming after you. With Oda in jail, he won’t have any more use for you.”

Atsushi nodded. “I could probably fight him off anyway.”

“I don’t doubt it. You shouldn’t have to, though.”

Atsushi nodded, and took this as his cue to leave, waving at Fukuzawa and Yosano as he went. 


	2. Statement of Dazai Osamu

Dazai knocked on Fukuzawa’s office door, and it opened almost immediately. 

“Dazai, I wasn’t expecting to see you,” Fukuzawa said. “I thought you were preparing for the Great Twisting.”

“That’s what I’m here for, Shachou,” Dazai said, flicking on a tape recorder and tossing it to him. “I’ve got a statement for you, and I figured it was time I gave it. I don’t have much left.”

Fukuzawa sighed. “I know. Have you found accommodations for Atsushi and Kyouka yet? I’d be glad to take them in for you.”

“Thanks, but I’ve already got someone lined up. Tanizaki can replace me perfectly, and once it’s time’s up I’ll be able to get it wherever it wants to go because, you know, sentient hallways stuff. I mean, it doesn’t seem to think I’ll back out of the deal once I’m the Distortion, and I don’t really see that I’ll have any reason to.”

“Tanizaki is our ally, but it’s still dangerous,” Fukuzawa said. “You captured it after it replaced Ichiyou Higuchi, after all, and now she wants revenge, and we cannot have the Stranger and the Corruption clashing in our halls.”

“We won’t,” he said. “The Corruption isn’t exactly known for its observation skills, and even if she notices, Akutagawa definitely won’t and he’ll kill her for going after me—even if it isn’t actually me.”

Fukuzawa sighed. “I assume that’s why you’re recording this conversation, then.”

“Actually, I came in here to give a statement,” Dazai said. “It might be my last chance.”

“Alright,” said Fukuzawa. “Statement of Dazai Osamu, regarding…”

“Regarding my former guardian, serial killer Oda Sakunosuke.” Dazai took a deep breath and began. “You know that Odasaku, Ango, and I ran the Buraiha Library. Our goal was to become a resource that rivaled the Magnus Institute and was unaffiliated with any powers. We collected the books, first, because they were an easy way to gather information and often enough, they could nullify each other’s affects. Well, one night, when I was around 10, Odasaku and I may have stolen a book from the People’s Church of the Divine Host and royally pissed off their leader, a bastard named Andre Gide. We didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to a possible counterattack, because come on. The  _ Dark _ ? That’s, like, the lamest power there is, and the People’s Church of the Divine Host is like the most boring  _ cult _ ever invented. Like, seriously. All they want to do is make the world dark. Just, like, adjust your sleep schedule, guys! It’s not that hard!

But I digress. Anyway, Odasaku and I stole a book or seven from Gide and he swore revenge. We didn’t take him seriously. A few nights later, I went out to try and bring this little Hunt avatar home--his name is Atsushi, he’s a sweet kid and I do  _ not _ regret going out to get him that night--while Ango held down the fort at the library and Odasaku went to bed early. He wasn’t feeling well, which is probably why Gide chose that night to attack. By the time I managed to coax Atsushi home, the kids were gone. I noticed something was up--the front door was hanging open, and the house was dead silent and just slightly darker than it should have been. Atsushi didn’t seem to notice anything off, so I didn’t speak up. I sat him down at the table and went to get him some water, and it was just disgusting. I have no idea why Gide made our water like that, but really, it’s just  _ gross _ . Like, that’s some Corruption bullshit, not  _ Dark _ . But anyway. Literally as soon as I saw the water, Atsushi found a People’s Church pendant and a note from the Dark fucker himself, Andre Gide. He signed it “with love”, like a bitch, and I brought it up to Odasaku because the bastard had flirted with him so presumably it was for him. He was freaked out, because there was no way that the water thing was  _ all _ that Gide did, so we went to check on the kids, and they were gone. Like, all gone. All five of them. Kousuke, Katsumi, Yuu, Shinji, and Sakura. Odasaku took the pendant and the note and bolted downstairs, and called Ango. Apparently the library was on fire, but the flames were black, and something. I don’t know, which really sucks. Odasaku never told me what else he said, and Ango and I kind of...stopped talking after that. I seriously, genuinely think he’s a Lonely avatar now, there’s no other explanation. But anyway, I wanted to go with Odasaku to help out at the library, but he saw Atsushi and I am not lying when I say he adopted him  _ on sight _ . I mean, he hadn’t been able to save the other kids, but there was one sitting right there, who he actually  _ could _ help, and so I ended up going upstairs with Atsushi and enough snacks to keep Ranpo occupied for three hours. Atsushi blew through three boxes of granola bars before curling up on my lap and refusing to move, even when Odasaku came back. He was always really shy around Odasaku for some reason. He opened up more around me. I guess it’s because we were both kids, and Odasaku was our guardian, and Atsushi had been  _ seriously _ abused by his last guardian. Like, I have convinced giving myself over to the Eye specifically so that I can learn that bastard’s name and address and beat the shit out of him. Even though Odasaku was never anything like him, Atsushi didn’t ever fully relax around him. His last headmaster must have been the worst person on the planet--I can think of literally no other reason Atsushi could have possibly had for distrusting him. Anyway, a couple years passed. Odasaku kept getting hurt--I assumed that he was going after Gide--and I got really, really good at cleaning blood off of things. He would go out at night, and Atsushi and I were in school during the day, so he wasn’t really...there much, and I guess he could have been killing people then. A couple months before everything happened--I think I was around twelve--I started getting really into pictures, like taking them and developing them. I wanted to blackmail the neighbors, although I told Odasaku that I was going to take pictures of us and send them to Ango. He and Ango hadn’t spoken since the fire. I thought that Ango was just mourning the Library and trying to rebuild Moorland House, but looking back he was probably angry that neither me nor Odasaku ever came to help him out when it was attacked, which I think was by Gide, but, you know, looking back, I’m actually not quite sure. I know it got set on fire, so maybe the Desolation was there too? Which really makes me wish I’d blackmailed Chuuya a bit more, but, you know, whatever. Anyway, so I took photos to blackmail the neighbors, and Odasaku and I set up a darkroom, and I had one half, and he had one half, and I wasn’t supposed to go into his, and I respected that, because it was Odasaku asking me. If it had been Mori you  _ know _ I would have been over there in a heartbeat, but as it was I stayed out until one day I decided to try to hang myself in my half--so that Atsushi wouldn’t see, I didn’t want to freak him out or anything--and the rope broke and I fell into his half and there were a bunch of pictures of dead bodies, like a  _ lot _ . And, I mean, I knew that serial killers who kept trophies are  _ the _ most likely to get caught. So I took all the photos from the walls, and I went and I found the albums he kept of the  _ other _ victims, and I put them all in my bag with some gasoline and a lighter and did my best rebellious-horny-teenager impression and told Odasaku that I was going to go bother Chuuya, and so he went to get out the burn salve and told me to be back either before dark or to have Chuuya drive me home, since, you know, fire makes light. I said sure, and also that we were going to have a Conversation when I got home, and then I booked it out of there. I didn’t even say goodbye to Atsushi, and Chuuya thought that was psycho because I had proof that Odasaku was, like, actually a serial killer and what if he did something to Atsushi? But he would never hurt Atsushi or me, ever, and all the people in the photos were grown men who looked kinda like Gide, not gonna lie, so I figured Atsushi was safe. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to him or Kyouka, but Odasaku’s never been any danger to either of them. So Chuuya and I torched the photos, and then we torched a gas station, and then we torched three locations for the People’s Church of the Divine Host, because I’m not an idiot, I knew Gide was the one blackmailing Odasaku into killing people. There were several cultists inside one of them, and some of them were pretty young, which...yikes, but Chuuya and I got about five out. Four guys, one girl. They wanted to talk to me about my living situation but like, their boss was making Odasaku kill people for him, so I told them that and told them all to go fuck off to hell and one of the boys started crying and the girl said something about Gide not doing it anymore and I asked if we’d killed him yet and they said no and so I said that wouldn’t work and would you please kindly fuck off before my associate sets you on fire too. So they left. I’m not sure whether or not Chuuya hunted them down after. We burned down a couple more places until I was feeling more like the sort of person who could sit down with the first person who’d ever loved him and say hey, I know you’re killing people, and I want to help make sure you’re never caught. It was around 2 AM then, and so I decided to go back, and Chuuya likes kids so he agreed to bring me back in exchange for meeting Atsushi. Except, you know, it was 2 AM, so Atsushi would be asleep, so he just kind of parked himself behind Odasaku’s writing shed and waited for the morning, which looking back is definitely kind of creepy, but whatever. Atsushi woke up when I came in, and so I turned on the lights because, you know, I  _ had _ just assisted in the murder of a bunch of Dark cultists and then  _ turned loose _ five of them to go running off to Gide because...I’m a fucking idiot, apparently, and Chuuya’s a bleeding heart when it comes to kids. And Atsushi went to cuddle me, because he wasn’t concerned  _ at all _ that I smelled like I’d just escaped a burning building, but then the streetlights started going out. Because I’m a  _ fucking idiot _ . It started to stink like brackish water, too, and so I introduced Atsushi to the wonder of swear words--I told him not to repeat them, of course, I’m not  _ completely _ incompetent--and then I called the cops on Gide--because it had to be him, the bastard--and took Atsushi to the shed. Or tried to, at least, because the damn thing was  _ glowing _ . Something was coming, though, so it wasn’t like we could  _ stop _ . I think Atsushi must have noticed it before I did, because he had been trailing behind me since we started for the shed and I didn’t notice it until it tore out of the back door. I had two options at that point: one, try to get to Chuuya in time and hope that he would take care of it for us, which was really unlikely, or lock ourselves in the shed, which was glowing so the Dark wouldn’t touch it, and had a  _ really _ great padlock, which was actually open, right now. So I opened the door.

And turned out that Odasaku and I were going to have that serial killer conversation a lot sooner than I’d planned, and also Atsushi would be part of it, because he was there and he was  _ definitely  _ seeing the same thing I was, which was Odasaku, on top of a dead body, holding a still-beating heart in the air and chanting. There were jars of other hearts, too, and they were all beating, and then the thing shoved past us--it didn’t touch Atsushi, thank God, but its claws went into my shoulder before it saw Odasaku and his body and went and ate  _ that _ before vanishing into...wherever. And suddenly it was dark again--regular dark, not Dark, there were streetlamps and the lights in the house were back--and so neither Atsushi nor Odasaku noticed that I was bleeding, which was good, because seeing photos is one thing but seeing the person you love more than anyone else in the world over a dead body knowing that the police were on their way, that  _ you called _ the police who were on their way. Odasaku looked at us both and apologized, said he did it for  _ us _ . There were so many things I wanted to say, and so little time, so I asked why. Chuuya says--because he was still there, he was listening--that I sounded like I was horrified and broken and about to cry, and there was so much blood that Atsushi couldn’t smell the difference between mine and the man’s so I guess they both thought I felt betrayed. Odasaku just shook his head. He looked devastated, and I think my words--my question--must have broken his. As he wiped his bloody hands on his pants he tapped out a message in Morse Code:  _ I’m so sorry, Dazai. It’ll be over soon _ . 

And then it was! Atsushi was in shock, so Chuuya cauterized my wound for me and then put on an excellent impersonation of a police officer to send Atsushi over to Lucy’s house. I redid my bandages, and then the police arrived and we told him our own story--obviously including finding Odasaku in the shed, but saying that Atsushi was sleeping over at a friend’s house and Chuuya and I were messing around, you know, as teenage boys do. They fell for it hook, line, and sinker, and now Odasaku’s been in jail ever since. Statement ends.”

Fukuzawa sighed. “Thank you, Dazai, for the Statement, but I’d really rather you not have to say goodbye at all.”

“I never said that I was saying goodbye,” Dazai said, affronted. “I might not even die, Shachou, that’s so mean of you!”   
“You always said you would give me a Statement over your dead body, Dazai, and now you just gave me your most personal,” Fukuzawa pointed out.

Dazai pouted. “You don’t know that. Maybe there was a Mori one that’s more near and dear to my heart.”

“I’m the Archivist, Dazai,” Fukuzawa said, and his Assistant huffed and dropped his head on the desk. “I can tell what sort of Statements I consume.”

“Right, sorry, Shachou,” Dazai mumbled. 

Fukuzawa patted his head. “You don’t have anything to apologize for, Dazai. I know you’re trying to get all your affairs in order, and I know why you chose this Statement. We both do. You applied for the Institute right after, right?” 

They both felt the buzz of a compulsion, but for once, Dazai didn’t try to fight it. “Yeah. Odasaku was gone, and Atsushi and I were on our own, and I didn’t want to call Ango, because he hadn’t  _ been _ there. I was angry at him, and I was scared that it was my fault, because anything I would never want to lose is lost the moment I obtain it. I needed some way to feed me and Atsushi, and so I was planning on crawling back to Mori and basically begging him to help us, which I wasn’t looking forward to, so I was bumming around the steps of the Institute when I saw the absolute  _ hottest _ guy ever, bringing in a box. He asked what I was doing, if I had a Statement to give or something, and I said that I was looking for a job. He said he was an Archival Assistant and that there might be an opening, he would check with his boss, and would I like to come down with him. I said yes, and followed him down. Atsushi was at school--it’s not like the teachers  _ knew _ we were homeless or anything--so I had a couple hours. He introduced me to his boss--you--and you got a short Statement from me about Mori and I told you to fuck off and you told me I was hired.”

They both blinked at each other for a minute, before Fukuzawa smiled at him. “The good old days.”

“Yeah.” Dazai smiled back. “I’m gonna miss you guys. I hope.”

“You will,” said Fukuzawa, and neither of them asked whether he Knew it or just hoped so. “I’ll make sure that I miss you as well.”

“Tanizaki’s going to replace me. You won’t remember me, none of you will.” Dazai’s voice shook, but he made an effort to swallow his fear. There was no point in making this meal any tastier for the Eye than it already was.

“I have your voice,” said Fukuzawa. “I have your Statement. I promise you, Dazai, I will not forget your voice and the Statement you gave me here, and you will  _ always _ be welcome in my Archives.”

“And I guess we’ll meet again if I ever sleep after...it,” Dazai said. He managed a shaky grin. “And--hey, Shachou. If you ever need a quick door to somewhere, after it all…”

Fukuzawa smiled back at him. “I’ll come right to you.”


End file.
